Rapids Do Just Enough To Get 3 Points

First of all the MLS salaries dropped today.  I'll have more about those next week, there's just not enough time in a 3-game week to get into them right now.  There's a lot to talk about though.

Back to last night's game where the team didn't play well, but they played well enough to get the 3 points.  Let's just talk about the turning point in the match, the PK and red card.  It was 100% correct and the Laws Of The Game are pretty black and white on this.

The best angle that Apple showed was from behind the goal.  From there you can clearly see the ball come off of Utvik's foot as he makes the block and head directly for the net until it glances off his arm and goes over the bar.  The goalkeeper wasn't getting there.  Clearly a hand ball, clearly stopped an obvious goal.  DOGSO-H.  

A lot of fans are hung up on both the changes to the handball rules and the changes to fouls in the box that used to be red cards (the double jeopardy changes).  Neither of those apply in this situation.  The LOTG are clear, a handball that prevents a goal is a red card anywhere on the field (unless its the goalkeeper in the box, of course).  It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not.  The only "out" is if the hand is in a natural position but a hand extended above the body as the defender makes a desperate lunge to stop a goal isn't natural.  Also DOGSO-H is explicitly excepted from the double jeopardy standard.  Its always a red.

Beyond that chance though, the team wasn't good, especially on offense (stop me if you've heard this before).  Djordje's shot that led to the PK was the only shot on target in the first half.  In the second half, despite being up a man, they only got three more.  Harris had two with a combined xG of 0.2 and Navarro had one with an xG of 0.07.  At least this game they had a number of chances that weren't quite on target but dangerous, which is a step up from some prior games.  Overall though, not being able to get a second goal and put the game away could have cost us.

Defensively there were some mistakes made that could have cost us, but Bombito and Steffen were on their games cleaning up anything that got by the rest of the back line.  Both Rosenberry and Maxso had serious mistakes that had to be dealt with and in general Rosenberry had a rough night.  Also once again missing from the gameday roster was Diack.  We're halfway through his loan period and he's had less than 20 minutes on the field.

Still good teams find ways to win when they aren't playing well and that's what Colorado did last night.  The Rapids have 3 more games this month, if they can get 7 points out of them they'll surpass their 2023 point total by the end of May.  They now have one more win than they did all of last year, and are only 5 goals away from matching their 2023 total.  This is undoubtedly an improved side, the question is still "how improved?".  We'll find out on Saturday as we head to Sandy with a chance to win the Rocky Mountain Cup.

Man of the Match: Zack Steffen.  He made two big saves just before the PK that kept the game scoreless, then parried a wicked long shot in the second half to keep the shutout going.

Wet Matchup On A Likely Wet Night

The only two MLS teams named after water features (of course there are only 9, or 12 depending on how you count United, MLS teams with official nicknames in their name) are matching up tomorrow night in Commerce City with PM thunderstorms forecast.  So it could be a damp night for those of you heading out to the game.  When I renewed my tickets this year I decided I was no longer interested fighting traffic for weeknight games.  Kickoff tomorrow for the middle game in this 3-game week is 7:30pm.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

That's a nice injury report, not great that KSB is out of course but its good we're almost at full strength for this busy week.  Its really hard to predict a lineup for this one but:

We really don't know what Armas' strategy is with this kind of condensed schedule, especially with the Rocky Mountain Cup on Saturday.  I went with as much of a rotation as I could see happening, but Armas may just focus on the game in front of him and worry about Saturday after that.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  If you subtract the disastrous first half on Portland then Vancouver and Colorado are very similar.  Just about an equal number of goals scored and allowed per game, though Vancouver has the same number of  points as the Rapids with a game in hand.  With the busy week I think a draw here is likely.

Rapids Beat By The Offside Rule

The Rapids came out on fire Saturday night, put 5 in the net, but only 2 that counted, then after the first 40 minutes fell on their faces en route to a 3-2 loss.  It was the most disappointing result since the season opener in Portland.  Certainly one step back after the steps forward of the last few games.

To get to the obvious point of discussion first, all three goals called back for offside were the right call.  On the first and third Navarro is obviously offside on the cross in.  On the second its a little more debatable but still the right call.  On the initial cross-field pass to start the attack Cabral is offside.  The ball wasn't played to him, so normally that wouldn't be a problem.  However he interfered with a defender who was moving to make a play on the ball.  If you watch the replay the defender has his back to Cabral and tracking the ball going over his head.  He then turns towards where the ball is going and immediately runs into Cabral.  The defender absolutely flops to sell the call but Cabral is standing right in his path to get involved in the play and by the offside rule. that's interference.

After the game Rosenberry suggested they never really recovered from the third goal being called off.  That's a concerning response to 40 minutes where they absolutely bossed San Jose up and down the pitch.  It feels like one of the first real failures by Armas, both not being able to stop the team losing their focus and not being able to adjust to what San Jose did at halftime.

Getting into specifics, the defense did a lot of ball watching on this one.  On the first goal there are 10 Rapids in or on the edge of the box, yet San Jose has two men unmarked with plenty of room at the penalty spot.  There was a deflection and a lucky bounce from Steffen's initial save but it was far too easy for SJ.

The second came from a nice touch by the Earthquakes, sending a corner back across the box to the left side of our defense, but the attacker came in the box again unmarked (or at least he completely beat the trailing Cabral).  And all the other Rapids were ball watching.

The winner came from another case of our defense marking space, not players.  For some reason, despite only two players over on the right side, our whole defense was overloaded to the right side with Sam Vines at LB being essentially at the penalty spot.  So it was a nice pass to cut the line but made easier with a whole half of the box being emptied.

You'll notice that "Sam Vines" and "left side" came up a lot in those descriptions.  As I mentioned last week the left back position is not one of our strengths right now, and its something we need to figure out ASAP.  I don't know if its the instructions Armas is giving Sam or if he's just struggling on his return but we're at the point that maybe sitting him down for a game or two to clear his head might not be a bad idea.  Certainly in a three game week maybe giving him Wednesday night off wouldn't be a bad thing.

Colorado is entering a tough stretch of games with four of the next five against Western teams in the top 4 right now (and the 5th is against 7th placed Houston).  Lets hope we don't come to regret these dropped 3 points.

Man of the Match: Rafael Navarro.  Yes he has to work on his offsides (though the third goal was really close) but he's finally putting back-to-back performances together.  He's got about two months to get on real tear to force us to make a decision.

One More Time

We just beat these guys 3-0 in their place a month ago, but the Earthquakes are in town for our second, and last, meeting of the season.  They've gotten better since then, signing Hernan Lopez as their #10 and a DP.  They pulled off an upset of LAFC last week with him coming off the bench at half.  I think we can expect him to start this week, but not play the full 90.  Kickoff is at the normal 7:30 at the Dick, and it could be a bit wet.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (knee)

QUESTIONABLE: M Jonathan Lewis (knee), M Djordje Mihailovic (non-injury)

"Non-injury" almost certainly refers to the fact that his wife is due with their first child any day (it may possibly have happened and they haven't announced it yet).  What's notable is who's not on this list.  Connor Ronan.  I don't think he'll be starting tomorrow, even if Djordje isn't available, but it will be nice to see him on the bench as an option.

The team will wear the New Day kit for their home games during Mental Health Awareness month

This assumes Mihailovic won't be available.  In that scenario I think Armas stays largely with the lineup he used in NYC last week, though he gives Harris a rotational start.  This is the first time we'll get to see how Armas approaches a 3-games-in-a-week scenario, especially with a big rivalry game to finish the week out.  That could lead to some surprises.

If Mihailovic can go we probably go back to our 4-5-1 we've been using, with Yapi moving back to the bench.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Bassett and Harris.  This is a hard one to pick without knowing how much Armas might rotate the squad.  If we get a full-strength squad (or as close as we can get to one) I think we can get the 3 points at home.  The expected rain will make for a sloppy game but Bassett finally gets a home goal as the winner.

Full Roster Info!

This actually happened last week but I was too busy to get to it.  The league, for the first time ever, released full roster info for all of the teams now that the primary transfer window has closed.  For the Rapids the information is below and also here:

Its a little small, so click to see it larger

What does this tell us that we didn't already have confirmed?  Not a ton.  It confirms that we currently have 6 international slots, all filled.  Navarro could be bought down to a TAM player on his current loan contract, though if we buy him for anything close to the reported price of $4.5M we'll lose that ability.  Michael Edwards is now the only Homegrown on the roster who didn't actually come through the Rapids Academy.  Diack, Steffen, and Vines are on TAM deals, while Bassett is on a U22 deal.

The real interesting thing (beyond just having this information all gathered in one spot for the first time) is the contract details.  We now know, for sure, when contracts run out for every player.  Well except for Bandre who was signed just as they were putting this together, but he's under a one year deal with options for the next two years as announced.  This coming offseason Jonathan Lewis is the only current Rapid that will be completely out of contract (loanees Diack/Navarro excepted).  I assume we aren't going to in a hurry to re-sign him.

We'll have a number of options to decide on.  Lalas Abubakar, Remi Cabral, Calvin Harris, Miguel Navarro, Keegan Rosenberry, Seb Anderson, Ethan Bandre, Moise Bombito, Michael Edwards, Nate Jones, and Oli Larraz are all going into option years   From where we are right now I could see us declining the options on Abubakar, Navarro, and Edwards, and possibly Jones and Rosenberry (with the hope to renegotiate with the captain).  I think Cabral gets picked up if he keeps his hot start in Phoenix going, Larraz will likely be picked up, and Bombito is a no-brainer.  Not sure about Anderson and Bandre.

Cole and Sam, and Mihailovic and Beaudry are under contract before we even get to options through 2027.  I think that people will largely be happy to have them here than long, but the hope for all four of them is probably to get back to Europe (or just to Europe in Beaudry's case).  Its interesting that after Lewis' contract ends at the end of the year, Sam and Cole are the only players without option years.  That shows a bit on what the team had to give up in negotiations to get them to re-sign here.

New York? More Like New Amsterdam

Cole Bassett took that experience he got in the Netherlands and brought it to New Amsterdam yesterday where he bossed the NYCFC defense for a goal and an assist en route to a 2-0 win.  He wasn't the Man of the Match (more on that later) but he was in the MLS Team of the Week.  Overall it was rather a chaotic game where the defense had to come up huge and the offense took advantage of their chances.

It really was a game of two halves.  In the first half the Burgundy Boys came out on the front foot, stayed aggressive, out shot NYCFC (7 shots and 2 shots on goal in the first half), and took a 1-0 lead and good vibes to the locker room.  The second half was a reversion to what we've seen a lot of the year, with a less aggressive team that didn't shoot (4 shots total) and who couldn't keep possession for long spells.  It wasn't until Bassett got the second in the 86th minute that it felt like we were likely to win, up to then it felt like we could fumble two points back to the Pigeons.

I don't know if it was the rain, the smaller field, the second road game in a row, or a combination of all of that but the ball possession and passing was very sloppy in this game.  There were long stretches of NYCFC attacking, the Rapids getting some sort of possession or controlled clearance, and then they would give the ball right back to the home side.  There was a particularly bad sequence where Fernandez gave it away, Cabral got it back, gave it away, then Vines let NYCFC play around him thinking (I assume) he had help that wasn't there.  Luckily New York couldn't hit anything on target so that series of mistakes didn't cost us.

Speaking of Vines, he's not the player he was when he went to Antwerp.  Over and over this game we saw wide open spaces on the left side, and this isn't the first game this season we've seen that.  His decision making is also slower than it was.  It does appear Armas wants him to pinch in more, not play the "Vines back" position on the line that he played under Hudson/Fraser, but that doesn't explain all of his struggles.  Hopefully he bounces back to his old self.

Navarro flashed the type of goal we've all been hoping to see with a great curled shot from about 14 yards out and on the side of the box.  Bassett did well to pick him out with a cross on the far post.  Cole then played an unintentional give-and-go with Harris (unintentional because I think Bassett wanted to lead Harris more to set him up for a shot but didn't pull it off, so Harris turned it into a give-and-go) to set himself up for the clinching goal.  That's now 9 goals between Navarro and Basset this season, all on the road.  Its also the third(?) time they've both scored in the same game.

A big hat-tip to the defense.  The commentator called them the Burgundy Forest during the match and I think that nickname is going to stick for a bit.  NYCFC kept sending cross after cross in and Bombito and Maxsø we're waiting to clear them back out.  The couple of times that the home side got a good look at goal they either sent it wide or Steffen was up for the save.

With the win the Rapids have equalized their win total from 2023 (5), only 11 games in.

Man of the Match: Moise Bombito.  Bassett was great, but it was Bombito who was everywhere breaking up NYCFC attacks and keeping the game scoreless and the Rapids on top.  Bassett sealed the game with the final goal but without Bombito he would have been retaking the lead, or tying the game.

Rapids Playing Somewhere In NYC On Sunday

The nickname given to NYCFC has been the Pigeons, some fans love it, some hate it.  They should really be the Wanderers though as they seem to play at whatever field will host them.  This week they're hosting the Rapids at the other baseball stadium, Citi Field, on Sunday afternoon.  Kickoff is an odd 2pm.  For whatever reason the Rapids haven't released an injury report this week, all we have to go on is Burgundy Wave's reporting from the open practice on Friday:

- Connor Ronan is back in full side team drills. Probably still 1-2 weeks out. But progress. Jasper Löffelsend back too. 

- Lewis and Chacon working together, not with full team. 

No comments about Abubakar and Vines, both of whom were Questionable last week, so I assume they're good to go (Vines started last week).  Beaudry is also back from his training stint in North London. 

I'm not expecting any changes from Armas this week.  Maybe he mixes up the wingers but that's it.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  NYCFC has a worse offense and a better defense than us.  So I'm thinking these two teams are fairly balanced.  The wild card is the weird field in NYC.  I think that the teams largely bounce off each other and end up level.

Belated Review Of Rapids Being Shown Their Spot In the League

Sorry for the delay on this recap, rough couple of days here but moving in the right direction.  Much the same can be said about the Rapids this week, a rough game in Cincinnati (and a rough trip home) but overall the team is moving in the right direction.  In my preview I predicted a 1 goal loss (admittedly I said 1-0 and not 2-1) and that FCC would clearly be the better team but the Rapids wouldn't be played off the field, and that's essentially what happened.

On both of Cinci's goals they pulled an our defense apart and made passes that the Rapids are unable to accomplish with any regularity.  On the first Bassett failed to notice that the home side overloaded our right side and there were four attackers being covered by Bombito, Rosenberry, and Larraz.  The imbalance led to Bombito being forced to decide to step up to pressure the ball or stick with his man.  He chose to step up and the attacker released the ball behind him to the now unmarked attacker.

On the second goal Bombito needed to have a bit more trust in his teammates.  Larraz was beat but was close enough to still hassle the man with the ball but Bombito stepped up to help and again the attacker beat him with a pass.  Now a lot of MLS teams wouldn't be able to pull off those passes, but when you have a top 10 (top 5?) player like Acosta pulling the strings you're going to get burned.

I know I called Bombito out a lot there, but he wasn't as bad as he sounded.  On the first goal he was left stranded with no good decision.  On the second he did make a mistake but he owned up to it post-game, and again he got very little help.  He also made up for it by scoring a nice header to get back into the match.

In the end though, what really bit us is that we had 2, just 2, shots on goal.  Once again our inability to turn possession, even good attacking possession, into actual shots is our Achilles heel.